Small World.
What is love?
That was the only thing to go through Spike's mind as the young dragon looked out over the distant sunset. He lay lazily on a rock overlooking the town of Ponyville as the day's last radiant rays of light sank away under the golden horizon. A warm breeze blew gently through the surrounding trees and caused distant lakes and rivers to shimmer like liquid gold in the light. Far off upon the mountainside, the city of Canterlot glistened, its great white spires sparkling. Beyond lay the great mountains of Equestria's far border. It was more beautiful than he could have imagined, a moment beyond anypony’s ability to capture. And so it should be.
Today's sunset held far more significance than any other – it was the last of the summer. This twilight's golden glow saw the end of warm sunny days and heralded the arrival of falling leaves and eventually winter's snow. All so perfect, or it would have been.
Shifting slightly, he snorted, a small puff of green flame escaping his flared nostrils as he did so. All he did was watch emptily as the fire evaporated into the air. He'd planned for this evening to be special even among the last of the summer sunsets. Yet life had a funny way of twisting things, and all that he had expected had washed away by the river of time.
His wings rustled with indignity at the idea, and another flash of fire curled up from his muzzle. But he couldn't think about it that way, and no matter how much he hated the situation he knew he couldn't be mad. Yet once again life was making that difficult, and he hated himself for it.
If Rarity were here as he'd planned. She was the most beautiful, stunning, magnificent mare he'd ever seen and Spike had loved and adored ever since the day they'd met years ago. It was all no more than a silly crush back then, yet as he'd gotten older and matured into a strong young drake, he'd at least hoped that Rarity would take more notice of him. That wasn't to say he didn't like being her little Spikey-Wikey of course. It was a role he often preferred to being Twilight's number one assistant in fact. But things couldn't stay like that forever, and as much as he still adored his friend, he knew that she didn't adore him in quite the same way.
He gave a disgruntled snort as that idea crossed his mind, more streams of smoke curling from his nostrils as he shifted again. Tonight could have turned out so perfect if she had just come with him. He'd been waiting for weeks and yet when he'd finally worked up the courage to go to the Boutique and tell Rarity how he truly felt, he'd arrived only to find her frantically getting ready to meet some other pony.
It had felt like the first time his heart had truly broken. Not only that but the fact that she'd told him then and there that she intended to go on a date with somepony else only confirmed she didn't think all that much of his feelings towards her. To her it must have all still been no more than that stupid crush; maybe that's all she thought it meant to him too. How else could she have been so blunt about it? She'd left to meet her date soon after that with no more than a friendly goodbye.
At the thought, Spike's eyes shifted to the town below, specifically the area of town to contain the majority of fine dining establishments in Ponyville. The rustic cafes and country diners were not quite as extravagant as those found in Canterlot, or most other cities for that matter. But as his sharp eyes scoured the crowded outdoor seating areas of the restaurants, he couldn't help but wonder if she was there. If that were so, she was exactly where she belonged, doing what she loved. That only made him question whether he'd ever had a chance at all – who would have allowed a dragon like him to attend such a gathering after all?
Spike pulled his gaze away moments later, directing it instead to the empty apple orchards of Sweet Apple Acres and the rolling hills beyond as more of the sun's golden light began to slip below the horizon. It was a far more comforting sight, free of all but the majestic display nature had put on show for the evening. He sighed again, the smoldering embers of his frustration scattering into the warm breeze as he finally accepted that he may never have a life with the mare he loved, nor did he think he'd make her happy even if he could.
His wings shifted again, and for a moment he thought that a long fly over the mountains would do him some good. He knew Twilight wouldn't mind if he disappeared for a night. One of the perks of being a dragon that he actually enjoyed came in the form of the fact nothing ever messed with him. At the thought, he finally lifted his head from the stone and spread his large, leathery wings.
Whatever love is, I won't find it here anymore, he thought to himself emptily.
In that moment, however, life's habit of twisting the fates of those living it once again added something unexpected to the situation. A rustle sounded in the bushes behind him, and his head perked up, barbed ears standing to attention. He looked back sharply, settling his wings back at his sides.
He straightened his muzzle and focused his narrowed eyes on the disturbance as he cocked his head in an attempt to peer through the undergrowth. Moments later, an equine figure emerged from the tangled vegetation. For a second he thought the impossible. It couldn't be her, she was out with somepony else, she...
"Hey, Spike. Sorry for sneaking up on you," came the soft voice, not of Rarity, but of her younger sister.
Spike's confusion only grew as the young white mare with curled pink mane stepped out from the bushes, shaking the leaves and twigs from her clean coat in a casual way her sister never would.
"S–S–Sweetie Belle?" he finally asked, fighting to formulate his words properly.
She was one of the last ponies he'd expected to see. Not only was she slowly becoming one of Equestria's next biggest singers, but whenever not out on some talent show or doing some form of concert, she always spent time either with her friends or her older sister. He recalled the few times she'd come home before, most of which he'd only ever seen her around the boutique or shopping around town with her sister.
He'd always made an effort to acknowledge her and say hello of course, but most of the time he couldn't help but feel she'd been avoiding him. That conversation had always been brief, she'd always seemed too eager to move on with her day, and he often noted how she fumbled for words around him.
The only time she ever seemed able to focus on him was when he was focused on her sister, but he attributed most of the strange behavior to how her life was changing, and the stress it surely induced. Regardless of his surprise and wondering memories, Sweetie Belle only smiled at him.
"Yeah... the one and only," she responded with a small laugh, and began slowly trotting over. "I hope I'm not intruding or anything," she added, ears folded back as she seemed to fight to stop her eyes from wandering.
Just as usual then? Spike noted, but he was quick to dismiss his shock, then shook his head.
"No, of course not," he assured her. "I just like to come up here sometimes to get away from things."
At the confirmation, Sweetie Belle moved up next to him, and he shifted aside to offer his friend a space on the rock.
"I can see why, it's a lovely view," she observed, looking out over the sunset as she took a deep breath and seemed to collect herself.
Spike couldn't help but notice how the sun twinkled in her lime green eyes, even as they made an effort not to fix upon him. Despite the difference in color the tranquil spheres looked so much like her sister's eyes that he could hardly tell them apart in the light. Yet just like those few times he'd seen her recently, he could still sense a distinct difference in her, a difference that he couldn't quite identify.
"Wish I had somewhere like this to go when I needed to get away from things," she admitted with a small sigh.
Spike raised an eye crest curiously at the confession, watching as the young singer's head sank ever so slightly.
"Really? What could such a great pony like you ever need to get away from?" he asked, eye crest still raised, even as he shrank back a little.
Sweetie Belle snorted a weak laugh.
"I know right? What does the future singing idol of Equestria have to worry about huh?" she stated, drawing herself up subtly at the words.
Spike sank back subtly at the look. Not only did the newfound boldness to her voice remind him so much of her sister, but he couldn't help but feel he'd voiced his question the wrong way.
"Sweetie, I–I–I didn't mean to..." he began, but she casually waved the apology away with a forehoof.
"Neither did I, Spike, it was a perfectly reasonable question, it's just, there's no straight answer," she assured him, giggling lightly as she bowed her head, and averted her eyes to locks of her mane that hung over them
Despite that, Spike sighed and his fear he may have offended her faded as he smiled.
"I often wonder what it is too. I mean, I've always dreamed of singing on stage, or since Apple Bloom and Scoots made me realize how much I loved it, that is," she began, blushing a little at that latter part. "But now that I'm on my way there... I don't know. It's like I don't want to leave everything behind for what I've dreamed of."
Spike considered her words carefully, wings rustling as he glanced to the hills and the distant mountains beyond as their snowy peaks gleamed like pure gold in the sun's glow.
"Oh, and don't get me started on the fuss. All the requests, expectations... The fans..." Sweetie went on. "By Celestia, the number of colts that have come up to me to ask me out or sign some crude poster is unreal; does anypony understand romance these days?" she exclaimed, waving her forehooves in emphasis.
At Sweetie's wild gesture, Spike pulled his eyes away from the horizon and laughed a little.
"I know what you mean... Not so much about the frantic fans or lovey-dovey parts. But the rest, leaving things behind, I get that," he told her.
Sweetie looked at him with a cunning smile.
"Lovey-dovey, really? You're starting to sound like Scootaloo," she teased, and he swiftly corrected himself.
"No, no, I know what you meant, I'm just no expert. Besides, I thought you already had a special somepony?"
At that, the memory of the brown, earth pony colt that he thought Sweetie had been dating came to mind. He recalled specifically one of the few times he'd actually seen the pair together for any long amount of time. It had been about a year ago, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight went out camping with Sweetie Belle and her friends, it had been both a break for Twilight and a chance for the former cutie mark crusaders to get together and spend some time like when they were younger.
Of course the older fillies had not been satisfied by that and in the end, both Apple Bloom's colt friend, Scootaloo's filly friend, and Sweetie's special somepony had all gone along with them. It had been then that Spike had decided to go, mainly just to spend some time with Twilight free from all the books and organization.
It was safe to say those few days out in the woods had been enjoyable, even with the extra rabble. Yet once again, as Spike recalled the three evenings they'd spent out in the wilderness he could only remember Sweetie acting the same evasive way. That had been the last night, where a bitter chill and the fact that her colt friend had fallen asleep across her legs prevented her from moving away from the warpath of the camp fire.
That had been the only real time in the past few years the two had spoken to each other like they did when they were younger, and while Sweetie had been hesitant at first the pair had had a good night as the only two awake. The memory of warm smores and the crackling of the fire came back, as did the sound of Sweetie's laughter mixed with his own. A brief image of her eyes twinkling like the stars about in the light of the flame had been etched into his memory that night.
That was until the next morning, then once again he'd fallen in line behind Rarity. Yet ever since then there had been another idea nagging at his mind, something that polluted his affection for the alabaster fashionista. A seed of something bigger than that simple crush, that was now never to be anything more.
As Spike's mind swam with nostalgia, however, Sweetie's wry look faded, and noticing his friend's crestfallen expression Spike swallowed and severed his train of though. He had no right to think about her that way, especially considering she already had a special somepony. Furthermore, he cursed himself for being so blunt about her relationship and opened his muzzle to once again correct his abrupt assumption. To his surprise, however, Sweetie Belle spoke first.
"You mean me and Button? Yeah, I liked him, but I broke up with him nearly a year ago. We both agreed it wouldn't work. He loves Ponyville too much, and I don't blame him. I couldn't live with myself knowing I was the one to take somepony away from the place they love. I can hardly cope doing it to myself." A tired sigh concluded her words.
"But I can't stay here and have my dreams," she explained, that small laugh once again escaping her muzzle as she looked out over Ponyville as if the town were some distant love fading into the sunset.
At those words, Spike’s urge to once again look out to the far off mountains surfaced again, but instead he chose to share Sweetie's view.
"The world is a big place. At least you know you'll get to see it," he offered her, reaching a wing out to her shoulder in attempted reassurance even as his own desire to fly off into the distance grew.
Regardless, his wing continually jumped back as if he were a pony reaching for a red hot flame.
So much for being fireproof, he grumbled internally, yet he did notice that his efforts at least made Sweetie smile.
"Yeah, I still wish I had somepony to make it smaller, though," she said thoughtfully, then the future pop star's gaze turned to him sharply.
"But what about you, what does Equestria's number one dragon have to get away from?" she asked. Spike’s felt a warm blush under his scales before Sweetie swiftly added. "Sorry, the name's kinda a force of habit."
Spike looked down at his paws, studying each sharp claw and comparing them to the set of hooves only a few inches beside them. If he didn't know any better, the alabaster fur could have belonged to Rarity, and yet for some reason, he felt glad it didn't. It was like that small jab he'd felt in the woods all those months ago, elusive feelings that were whispering to him about something with far more truth than a simple crush.
"Not much difference really, minus the fame and all that. Although, being Equestria's only domestic dragon does attract some attention," he told her, shaking his head in an attempt to be rid of the jarring feelings that swelled there.
Sweetie snorted another laugh, something he knew he'd rarely catch her big sister doing, and yet he didn't care.
"You're not domestic, Spike, you're our friend and you're a good friend too. By Celestia, you're around at the boutique almost every time I come home." Sweetie's giggling continued as she placed a hoof on his shoulder. Spike couldn't help but tense at her touch, his wings ruffling again.
Even so, Sweetie Belle's words of kindness felt as magnificent as the sunset itself, even as he detected the slight tremble in her own touch. Yet he ignored that as he couldn't help but feel that this was right, the moment bore a weight that he didn't think it would even if Rarity had accompanied him. Sweetie had an air of understanding about her that her elder sister simply lacked, and it was an understanding that seemed to coincide far better with his own.
"That's why you came out here, isn't it?" Sweetie said abruptly, and Spike froze.
"What?" he stuttered sheepishly.
"Spike, I saw you at the boutique earlier. I know you were going to ask my sister out before she left for her date," she explained simply.
Spike looked at her, yet he felt more akin to a timid puppy than a large dragon. Sweetie seemed to be considering her words carefully, most likely because of fear she might upset him. Yet unlike himself, Spike couldn't help but feel she was far more knowledgeable about the topic of feelings and relationship.
"Wait, how do you know?" Spike asked, looking at her sharply.
"Come on, Spike, most ponies in town know you used to have a crush on Rarity. Not as many seemed to know you still loved her, though," Sweetie told him as his surprised face and both his head and wings drooped.
He sighed and let his lips splay out lazily to the stone like some deflated balloon.
"It was really that obvious?" he asked, one eye daring to glance up at Sweetie.
"Not as obvious as you might think actually, but I've seen enough ponies out there to know how to read them. I supposed dragons weren't any different," Sweetie elaborated, yet he detected no sense of pride or achievement in her words, just sympathy.
Spike didn't want to think what else the unicorn may have seen in him as she told him that, he didn't want to think what she had been seeing in him all those times she seemed to be avoiding him, or that night that spent awake around the campfire. Yet her softly smiling face diminished his fears.
"Guess you must know that she was never going to love me back then huh?" he finally confessed, the feeling of telling somepony both a relief and heartbreaking simultaneously.
"I wouldn't be so sure. But as romantic as Rarity can be, I think she gets a little too caught up in it. If you know what I mean?" Sweetie told him with a small giggle seemingly at her sister's expense.
Spike couldn't help but do the same as he thought about that, and despite his love of Rarity, Sweetie Belle had a point. She did have a tendency to fall for every handsome stallion that batted their eyes at her.
"But that's why I came out here. When I saw you leave, you were heartbroken, and as much as I've loved somepony before, I know how much my sister meant to you so I won't pretend to know how you feel."
She paused for a moment, pressing a hoof to her muzzle as she appeared to consider something, then with a sigh she finally confessed, "I just wanted to see if you were alright."
Spike stopped the whimsical thought regarding Rarity's somewhat silly love of dating and looked back at Sweetie. Once again she was incredibly like her sister, but as much as Spike loved Rarity, there was very little of her in Sweetie.
There were new things he adored and admired, while he admitted loved Rarity because of her glamorous looks, she didn't have the understanding of his feelings that Sweetie seemed to possess. That wasn't to say that
Sweetie didn't look as beautiful as her sister, in fact, the lack of all the glamorous accessories and a constant need to stand out in a crowd appealed to him far more. Maybe that was what he'd come to understand that night by the campfire. Perhaps it was then he'd seen a mare for more than her looks, and that underlying understanding had been with him ever since, slowly undermining his fragile love of Rarity and leading his feelings towards something more grounded in truth.
While those new ideas flowed into Spike's mind, he failed to realize the intensity of his blank stare. He watched blindly as Sweetie Belle blushed and shied away slightly. At that, Spike realized how he must look and fumbled for words as he drew his splayed limbs back up straight.
"I–I–I'm sorry... I didn't mean to stare, Sweetie, y–you just... Yes, I'm glad you came out here. I planned to watch this with your sister. But I'm glad it didn't end up wasted," he stuttered, flustered voice overcome as his quivering eyes darted to anything other than Sweetie Belle.
His efforts were futile, however, and soon he felt his cheeks warm as a blush spread across them, like likes of which not even his thick scales could hide. Meanwhile, Sweetie looked at him curiously.
"I suppose that means you're feeling better then?" she asked weakly, shifting her forelegs together.
Spike nodded rapidly.
"Yeah, I suppose... Not quite the perfection I imagined, though."
"But it’s still perfect, isn’t it?" Sweetie pressed.
Spike felt another sudden urge to fly away, and it wasn't too hard to assume that the nervously shifting mare beside him was battling her own urge to run. Yet it was a different fear, and it was hindered by the fact that neither of them took their eyes off one another.
"Spike, I know I'm not my sister. But coming back home all those times to see you with her, only to see you before I... I–I really didn't think it was right of me not to do something," Sweetie began as she shuffled closer. "You're far kinder and more loyal than most ponies I've met, and I don't know if my sister admires that the way I do."
That soft little laugh of hers followed her confession, so too did her smile grow ever so slightly.
"I've met a lot of ponies that wanted no more than to make a few quick bits out of what I was trying to do with my life. I come home and I'm free of that for the most part, and yet no part of home ever wants to go back out there with me, if you get what I mean?"
In that moment Spike's thoughts shifted as he too realized something. He may never win Rarity's heart, but in vying for the fashionista's affection he'd seemingly won the heart of another pony. A pony who he was beginning to see was far different from her elder sisters. He knew he respected Rarity for all she was without a doubt. But talking to Sweetie about the vastness of the world and the potential it offered made him realize something. Unlike her elder sister, Sweetie Belle was far more open to the world he yearned to see.
It was that longing to break free and see everything Equestria had to offer that he admired in her. Yet for all of that, she still knew where to call home. Thinking about the distant mountains for just a moment more, Spike knew that the world was indeed a big place. Yet it was still small enough for him to know exactly where he belonged, with a mare that knew the values of home as much as he did.
"Sweetie Belle, I... I–I don't know what to say I..." he started, but nerves stole his words as they faded.
Sweetie Belle paused, and Spike noticed a dread in her magnificent eyes. That urge to fly away became stronger than ever, and he fought it with all of his will. It wasn't too hard to assume Sweetie Belle was doing the same either.
"It's just, you're set to become Equestria's next big thing and I... I'm just some creature that shouldn't really be with a pony in the first place," Spike told her, catching another fleeting glimpse of those mountains in the distance.
Sweetie Belle appeared to consider that for no more than a second before once again putting a reassuring hoof on his shoulder.
"Spike," she declared suddenly. "You're better than any pony could be, and you can choose to be with whoever you want," she told him, looking back out over the sunset sky. "You're right about one thing, though, the world really is a big place."
Spike's eyes passed from the beautiful mare to the twilight sky, as the stars began to replace the sun's radiant light, twinkling in the crystal clear void like they did that night all those months ago.
"You’ll find somepony to make it smaller?" he assured her kindly, and Sweetie smiled.
"I think somepony may already have. He just did it in a way no pony could." She gestured to the fading sunset with a hoof.
"That's if he really wants to go out there and see it?" she asked, the golden glow fading from her face.
Spike looked between her and the horizon, and for the first time, he realized what it felt like for his heart to belong.
"I think for you, he would," he stated simply.
"For both of us," she corrected, before leaning forwards.
She pressed her muzzle to his, in a way he'd never thought possible. He'd never imagined this, never thought he'd ever win over the heart of the mare he loved and in the end, he'd been right about that. In truth, he'd never been more glad of the fact. The world was indeed a big place, but sometimes life’s twists and turns offered the most wonderful of unexpected surprises.
